Three Jets and a Sparkeater
by Alexis Raphael
Summary: Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker are left in charge of the base while everyone else is out for the night on a raid. Rather than act normal and guard the place, they turn out all the lights and start telling ghost stories. But what happens when they find out that a real Sparkeater might be in the base with them?


**Three Jets and a Sparkeater**

Decepticon Headquarters seemed deserted. All the lights were off and the hallways, usually buzzing with activity, took on a creepier feel. In the control room, however, three sets of red eyes shone, facing each other. These belonged to Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker and they had been left in charge of the base while Megatron led the other Decepticons on a raid. Megatron estimated that he would be back the following day. The three Seeker Jets took full advantage of the absence of their leader and, turning out all the lights, they gathered in the control room to tell ghost stories.

"-and they never found him, his wife, or their three sparklings." Skywarp was saying in a mysterious, creepy voice.

Thundercracker shivered and said, "Hey, Starscream, tell us the one about the Sparkeater."

"You sure you want to hear that one? It's pretty freaky, and Skywarp might have bad dreams." The SIC teased.

"Hey," the black jet interjected, "I haven't had bad dreams since I was a kid! I think I can handle a little ghost story."

"This isn't just _any_ ghost story, Warp; this is a _Sparkeater_ story!"

"Fire away, Starscream! I'll show you two sissies how a _real_ Seeker handles Sparkeater stories!"

Starscream began.

"It happened long ago, on a night much like this. A mech was walking home late from his job and it was darker than the Pit outside. As he walked, he got the feeling that something was watching him, but when he turned around, there was nothing there. Three times it happened, but each time he turned, there was nothing. Finally, though, he caught a glimpse of something moving in the shadows and it wasn't a Transformer. Frightened, he transformed and sped home as fast as he could and closed and bolted the door of his home. He leaned against the door, panting and thinking that he was a fool to have imagined he was being followed. He went to the kitchen to get some energon, and saw that the tap was leaking as though someone had forgotten to turn it completely off. He lived alone and always kept things perfectly neat and orderly, and never forgot to turn things off. Then from upstairs he heard _tap, tap, tap._ Thinking it might be his pet mechacat, he went up to have a look. He glanced around the corner and saw nothing, but still heard _tap, tap, tap._ It was coming from his bedroom. He opened the door slowly, and peeked in through the crack. He stiffened, unable to cry out or move an inch, paralyzing fear overwhelming all else. _For there in his room,_ _holding the corpse of his mechacat was a Sparkeater!_ It paused for a moment, dropped the cat, then with a horrible, spark-chilling cry, it leaped towards the door. The mech found his voice then and screamed as it came towards him. He ran, but when he got to his door, his shaking hands couldn't undo the bolt. Terrified, he flew to the window, but that too was fastened and he was unable to open it. Then, he heard _it_ behind him. Turning around, he froze in utter terror as it advanced on him. His scream could be heard for miles, clear to Iacon, it's said, but the body was never found. Ever after, though, if the night was dark as the Pit, the doors and windows of the empty house would rattle, because his ghost haunts it still, trying to get out and away from the Sparkeater."

There was a moment's silence as Starscream finished speaking, then Skywarp said, "T-that wasn't sc-scary at all!"

"Y-yeah." Thundercracker agreed. "I w-wasn't at all f-frightened!"

"I can hear you two shaking all the way over here!" Starscream scoffed, but quickly stopped. "Ssh," he hissed, "Do you hear that?"

"W-what?" Skywarp asked.

"There it is again! It's kind of like a rap."

Then they all heard it.

_Tap, tap, tap._ It was coming from the hallway outside.

"What is it?" Thundercracker whispered, and Starscream said, "I don't know."

Skywarp said, "You don't suppose it's-"

_Tap, tap, tap. _It was getting closer.

"What if it is?" Thundercracker said shakily.

_Tap, tap, tap. _It was right outside the door.

"Let's hide! We've got to catch it!" Starscream scrambled to his feet.

"But can't we kill it?" Thundercracker did likewise.

"You can't kill a _Sparkeater_, T.C.! You can only catch it and give it animals to eat, otherwise it will break out, and once it gets a taste of fresh Transformer Spark, it wants more! None of us are safe as long as one is around!" Skywarp shivered and moved closer to the others.

_Tap, tap, tap. _The sound faded away down the hall.

"That was close!" Starscream let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding. "Skywarp's right," he said shivering, "We have to catch the Sparkeater before Megatron gets back. Let's stick together and look in the rooms. If we find him, then we have to shut him in the room he's in."

"But what if he's not in a room? What if he's in a hallway?" Skywarp whimpered.

"Then we have to find a way to get him in one! Let's g-go."

Cautiously, the three jets opened the door and peered out into the darkened hallway.

"Clear," Thundercracker whispered and they advanced slowly into the corridor. Keeping so close to one another that their wings kept smacking each other, they peeped first into one room, then another.

"Do you suppose it's gone?" Skywarp asked, pressing closer to Starscream.

"I-I don't know. But I think that the air is being sucked out of my personal space."

"Oh, Sorry." Skywarp backed up a bit.

They opened another door and found themselves looking into the Rec room-it was quite dark, you'll remember and the jets were having a rather hard time finding their way around.

"We'll have to search this one thoroughly." Starscream said, "Split up."

"D-do we have to?" Skywarp asked.

"Yes."

The jets separated and after a few minutes, Thundercracker said, "Hey, over here, I think something's been here recently."

The other two came over and gasped in fright. _The energon tap was dripping!_

"This is way too freaky! I'm getting out of here!" Skywarp turned to leave, but Starscream held him back.

"We need to catch the Sparkeater, Warp! We can't lose our wits now, not when we're so close. Come on, carefully now."

The three jets cautiously moved away from the tap and strained their eyes to see any sign of anything in the dark. The other jets heard Starscream mutter something about it being darker than the Pit in here, but that only added to their uneasiness. Skywarp stopped as he felt somebody beside him who wasn't either of his companions, and he didn't delay in notifying the others. He screamed.

Starscream and Thundercracker rushed to him immediately and managed to land a couple of good punches on the Sparkeater before they all started yelling things like, "Get to the door" or "Lock him in!" or "HELP!"

After what seemed like an eternity of fumbling, they found the door, but it seemed to be locked.

"What are we going to do?!" Skywarp screeched, "Our Sparks are gonna be eaten by that monster!"

"Calm down, Warp!" Starscream told him, "The door's just stuck I think. Thundercracker, hold the Sparkeater off while I get it open."

"But I'll be desparked! Hold him off yourself!"

"Desparked isn't even a word! Besides, better you than me! Aah! Help! Get it off, get it off!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"Why won't the door open?!"

"HELP!"

"Hit it on the head!"

"I've got it!"

"Good!"

"What do I do with it?"

"STOP!"

"It's trying to trick us! Don't listen to it! Starscream, open the door!"

"You jerks it's-"

"Shut it, Sparkeater! I shot it! I think it's stunned! Have you got the door?!"

"Yes! Come on, before it revives!"

The three Seekers tumbled out into the hallway and fell over each other in their haste to close the door. Finally, though, they stood in the hallway panting and sighing with relief.

"We *pant* we got him!" gasped Thundercracker.

"What'll we do with him? We can't let him live in the Rec room forever." Huffed Skywarp.

"Megatron'll deal with him, but even that idiot of a leader will have to be impressed that we caught a Sparkeater all on our own." Starscream wheezed.

"I vote that we go to bed. I'm beat." Thundercracker limped off in the direction of his quarters and the other two did likewise.

The next morning when the Seekers reported to Megatron about their brave deed in capturing the Sparkeater, their leader looked a little dubious.

"How could one of them have gotten aboard the ship without our knowing? We built it on this organic planet, remember?" the huge grey mech asked.

"I don't know, either, but it did get on board and we captured it!" Starscream stated proudly.

"Why didn't you kill it?"

"You can't kill a Sparkeater!"

"What about fusing it into an engine of some sort?" Frenzy spoke up, but Starscream frowned on him.

"That's the dumbest thing that I ever heard! Fusing it into an engine! It can't be done, take my word for it; I'm a scientist."

"You're a dead scientist, Starscream, unless you take me to the 'Sparkeater' right now!" Megatron snarled.

Starscream smiled at Skywarp and Thundercracker and led the way to the Rec room.

"Right in there, sir." Starscream gestured towards the door, and Megatron boldly made to open it.

"Wait! If you do that, it'll get out!" the jet leaped in front of the door.

"So?"

"But-"

"Shut up, Starscream, and get out of the way." The Decepticon leader shoved his still protesting second out of the way and flung the door open.

"Starscream." That one word caused the jet to cower and commence shaking. It usually preceded something bad.

"Yes, Megatron?" he whimpered. Thundercracker and Skywarp looked scared as well.

"Why don't you have a look at your 'Sparkeater'?"

The three jets peered cautiously around the door with the rest of the Decepticons pressing up behind them. The three Seekers gasped in disbelief as the rest of the Decepticon army roared with laughter. For there, sitting in the middle of the Rec room, sat a dented and sour-faced Rumble.

"Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, what the heck made you think that Rumble was a Sparkeater?! I see that you three did very well in overcoming one of Soundwave's _Cassetteicons!_ I can't believe that a) you thought that Sparkeaters were on this ship, b) you thought Rumble was a Sparkeater, and c) it took _three_ of my elite Seeker jets to beat up _one_ Cassetticon! How did you come up with the idea that it was a Sparkeater in the first place?!"

"Well, actually-"Starscream began.

"It was really-"Thundercracker stammered.

"Er, we were up all night telling ghost stories-Sir." Skywarp said.

"Let me get this straight. I leave you three to guard our base and all the energon stored here for one night and you three not only stay up telling _ghost stories_, but are such morons to think Rumble was a monster?! You're going to clean this entire ship, inside and outside, and all the rooms! If you leave so much as a tiny spot of grease anywhere, I'm going to demote you to cannon fodder for the Autobots! Have I made myself clear? And if you do anything of the sort again, I'm personally going to see that you get tossed in the Smelting Pools on Cybertron!"

"Um, Commander?" Skywarp's voice sounded small.

"What is it, moron?"

'We can't exactly get to Cybertron at the moment...sir..."

That produced a rather interesting reaction in the Decepticon leader. It was as if he was going to explode from the inside at any moment and his eyes seemed on the verge of shooting lasers out at the cowering jet.

"GET OUT NOW! IF I SEE ANY OF YOU BEFORE THE SHIP IS SPOTLESS I WILL NOT HESITATE TO SHOOT! MOVE!"

Needless to say, the jets wasted no time in getting out of there, Skywarp being the fastest as he teleported away. They obeyed Megatron to the letter and Thundercracker only got shot once when he wasn't fast enough around a corner. The ship was spotless within a week. As for Rumble, well, I'll just leave it at he got his revenge in a way most uncomfortable to the three jets, and also quite humiliating. Somewhere far away, though, a lone Sparkeater watched the scene with interest and licked his lips; it had been a long time since he'd had a good fresh Spark to eat...

* * *

Well, this was random. I was originally going to have the guys find a real Sparkeater, but then I had the idea of having them on a wild goose chase, which struck me as a nice way to torture my favorite Decepticons. Oh, and I think the reason Rumble wasn't with the other Decepticons was that he wasn't needed, or not feeling well, or something like that. Anyhow, let me know if you loved it, hated it, if my spelling and grammar is horrible, etc. =D


End file.
